Richard Childress will move its Nationwide Series program over to Kevin Harvick Inc., next year so the car owner can concentrate on building trucks for grandsons Austin and Ty Dillon.

Childress won three Nationwide championships - two with Harvick and one with Clint Bowyer. Harvick now runs his own Nationwide and truck programs. Childress will focus on his three Sprint Cup Series teams with drivers Harvick, Bowyer and Jeff Burton, as well as getting his grandsons' careers off the ground.

John Wes Townley started the season in the No. 21 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, but he was fired before midseason. Morgan Shepherd drives the car now, but it's far from being the same team that's won 52 races in the last 10 years.

Harvick fields one full-time team in the Nationwide Series and another team that's made selected starts. He's done most of the driving in the No. 33 Chevrolet, while Ron Hornaday Jr., Tony Stewart and Mike Bliss have filled in the rest of the time.

Nationwide double-dipping

The rule that prohibits Sprint Cup Series drivers from double-dipping and winning Nationwide Series championships has gained a lot of traction.

NASCAR said it was looking at rules that would help the junior circuit create a stronger identity by not allowing Sprint Cup drivers to win championships. Most, including some from the senior series, like the idea.

"I agree with it, but there are pros and cons to it," Greg Biffle said. "You can make cases both ways. I agree that we need to build up the Nationwide Series. We need to build some stars in that Nationwide Series. Let the other guys win the titles. Yes, we need to be in the series to compete against those young guys."

Biffle is a former Camping World and Nationwide series champion. He moved fulltime to the Sprint Cup Series in 2003. He drove fulltime in both circuits in 2004, but he's dropped back to selected Nationwide starts since.

Although most agree the Nationwide benefits in publicity from the star power provided by Sprint Cup regulars, they also argue it stifles the growth of young Nationwide regulars. The last four Nationwide champions have been Sprint regulars, and the top-two drivers in this year's standings are Cup regulars - Brad Keselowski in first and Carl Edwards in second.

Since 2006, Cup regulars have won 152 of 161 races.

Kevin Harvick won the 2006 championship while doing double-duty. He's also won 14 times in the last five years in Nationwide. He now believes the junior series would be better served as a training ground for younger drivers.

"I think there's definitely a need to give the younger guys a place to come up," he said.

Television numbers game

The driving force behind television's slumping ratings are 18-34 year-old men who are turning away in record numbers.

According to information provided by Nielsen Media Research, ratings for FOX fell by 30 percent compared to last year among 18-34 year-old men. The loss of viewers for NASCAR's strongest demographics continued with TNT and ESPN.

ESPN seems to be taking a different approach for the final 17 races of the year, relying more on human interest stories and driver interviews. Despite providing a blend of information and entertainment, the results have been slow. However, ratings for the Brickyard 400 last month were down 12.5 percent compared to 2009.

The network said there's a difficult balancing act between providing tradition stories for older core fans and entertainment for a new audience.

"I think what we talk about is serving the NASCAR fan as a whole, first and foremost," said Julie Sobieski, ESPN's vice president for programming and acquisitions. "Generally events tend to skew older with the demo perspective than it does for news and information style programs. ESPN has a ton of events, but we have news and information programming that tends to skew to that younger demographic, so there is an opportunity there."

Pit stops

Car owner Jack Roush was upgraded to fair condition Tuesday at the Mayo Rochester, Minn. He was injured in an airplane crash at Oshkosk, Wis., last week. He has been in surgery at least twice for facial injuries ... Terry Labonte has reunited with his former car owner Billy Stavola. The new team, called Stavola Labonte Racing has plans to compete at Richmond, Charlotte, N.C., and Texas this year.